The Starling Girl

The Starling Girl’s thoughtfulness and lingering optimism toward a story that is predictably sorrowful is a necessary balance.

“The Starling Girl” lives and breathes through Scanlen’s stellar performance.

Laurel Parmet makes a striking, assured feature directorial debut with “The Starling Girl,” which serves double duty in solidifying Eliza Scanlen’s already pretty solid reputation as a young actor worth watching.

Parmet is confident enough to know that atmosphere, emotional tone and unspoken feeling can convey far more meaning than the talkiest of dialogue.

Parmet's less interested in cultish dread than a more naturalistic dullness of isolation and groupthink you'd find in any closed conservative society where women of faith have been sold a purity narrative.

It’s a refreshing change to see this milieu treated with the level of nuance that Laurel Parmet brings to “The Starling Girl.”

Laurel Parmet’s low-budget drama features yet another terrific performance from Eliza Scanlen...

Parmet’s conceit is naturally a little disturbing and no doubt considered controversial by some, but she juggles it well, never becoming too prurient or sensationalist, but also not condoning...

The Starling Girl is a coming-of-age movie that doesn’t explore the teenager’s journey of adolescence&#59; instead, it is a disturbing portrait of women who have internalised misogyny and the many ways in which women are conditioned to behave a certain way.

Few coming-of-age stories are without some form conflict defining the protagonist&#59; but Parmet’s film allows Jem to reach a state of grace of which she was always deserving – of which so many young women are deserving.